Once again: should you tip for counter service?

70 thoughts on “Once again: should you tip for counter service?”

1. “It would help enormously if they had a sign on the wall giving the hourly wage of the waitstaff as well as the counterpeople.”

   The sign on the wall where I go (the Bipartisan Cafe–a joke here in Portlandia) is more concerned with what pronoun to use when referring to staff than with how much to tip them. Go figure (no pun intended).

   1. Maybe the solution is to ask the employee about the wages paid and then:
      1) if they are low, leave a generous to and never come back to the store
      2) is they are reasonable, leave a symbolic tip, and come back
      In both cases announce the decision.

   2. In 35 years of service industry work I have never been paid above minimum wage and the only raises I’ve had are mandated by federal or state law. The workers at the counter are likely getting minimum wage.

2. My solution is not to feel coerced. The coercion stems from not wanting to look cheap. But why should you care? The people around you are strangers and you’ll probably never see them again. Do what I do. Proudly hit “no tip” and let everyone see it. After a couple of times, it will fell natural.

   1. It’s a qualm we all need to overcome. Every time I check out at the food store with my debit card, I get a panel asking for a donation to some cause. I don’t even know what cause, because I now reflexively hit the “nope” button and move on. Just expect this sort of thing everywhere, and hit “No” without hesitation. How many people do you know who look over the shoulder of someone in front of them in line and go “ooh, no tip”? Nobody.

      1. I hate that too. Even worse is when the cashier asks in a loud voice, in front of everyone, “Would you like to make a donation to (whatever)”. Like you, my answer is “No!” I refuse to be extorted this way.

   2. I think you are right, but I feel horrible if I do not give some kind of tip.

      It makes sense if it’s a bartender where interactions might be brief, but professional and amiable, but in most of these new tipping schemes it’s wholly impersonal and not related to the service, but just being in the same place as the person taking money.

3. As I’m sure was said many times before, the basic abstract solution is a vast improvement in the distribution of wealth within Canada and US, so they become much more comparable to the more northerly so-called ‘1st world’ countries.

   In particular this means a very decent wage for all workers in jobs related to food provisions and hotel etc. work. And then a custom of no tipping is appropriate, no worrying about the kitchen staff getting nothing; or the business owner skimming; or the government getting cheated out in one way of a reasonable income tax where it seems appropriate.

   I’m afraid I do get the impression that now in Norway, perhaps all of Scandinavia outside Iceland maybe, some people are getting sucked into North American customs in this respect, despite really very decent wages for these workers in jobs requiring little background education. But your Scandinavian readers can correct me on that; I go there every year for awhile and stay with ‘ordinary’ folks, in both Norway and Iceland, but may get a mistaken impression.

   1. I liked the part about the kitchen staff thing – wow ! Since
      when & why should they get a part of the front of the house –
      the food should be consistently good – regardless ! Otherwise
      the business will suffer then everyone loses .. and the tips given
      to servers and bartenders should be their own – not “pooled” , it’s
      blatantly unfair ..

      1. Not quite clear to me what you are saying.
         But perhaps it should be pointed out that, where the tipping of restaurant staff is common, it seems obvious that poorly prepared food will usually result in lesser tips. So the kitchen staff are ‘earning’ some of it, if there are tips.
         But I say: pay them all a decent wage and get rid of tipping. I know of no evidence that, in countries with little or no tips, you get you won’t get just as good service as here in North America.

      2. “the food should be consistently good – regardless ! Otherwise
         the business will suffer then everyone loses”

         Doesn’t exactly the same argument apply to the front of house staff? If the service is poor the best efforts of the kitchen staff will be undermined.

         The best solution is for all the staff to be paid properly and for employers not to rely on tipping to make up a proper living wage for their staff. That might mean they have to put up prices but that would be offset by not having to tip. It would take a lot of the embarrassment out of the whole transaction, waiters and other restauarant staff would not be dependent on the caprice of customers and everyone would know where they stand. Granted it is not likely that the restaurant industry will move to this model any time soon but it is very unfortunate that the tipping system ever got started.

4. I am so far out of it – probably should not comment. If I go to a “over the counter” place, that would be fast food and I pay cash. Never use a card for this. Also, never been asked to tip in any of these places. Maybe a few have had a tip jar? I have seen large screens where you can order and avoid standing in line, I assume you would have to pay with a card on these things.

5. My local coffee bar has a tip jar at the counter. My take-away order usually comes to £4.50 and I pay with a £5 note, so I generally drop the change into the tip jar.

   1. As Jerry mentioned, we don’t have tipping in NZ except by choice for really excellent service. No one feels obliged to tip.

      The other day I was in a food store where you can either take your order away or eat in. You can also choose items from cabinets. I ordered my meal to take away, and paid for it via EFTPOS. While I was waiting, I saw something else I’d like in one of the cabinets, costing $4.50. I put it in a bag, handed a $5 note to the cashier, and told her to, “keep the change.” She was uncomfortable about doing that – it’s just not how we do things. So I encouraged her to put the 50c in the tip jar on the counter, which she felt a little better about as that’s how they get their tips.

6. If coercive, it’s not tipping.
   Tipping for food service is absurd imo.. hardly anyone in other service sectors are tipped (last time you tipped your teller?), you’re made to feel guilty to tip because owners don’t pay properly so it really becomes supplemental income. Other countries do just fine without tipping.

   1. I agree.

7. If “everyone behind you can see how much you leave,” folks are standing way to close. Panera’s has such screen, and even if someone took the bold step to look right over my shoulder, they’d have to memorize the positions of the denominations. That, an no one cares what anyone is ordering or tipping.

   Dunkin Donuts always has a tip jar, and sometimes I leave change, but not if it’s quarters, which I save. My local Jewel-Osco has the screens and occasionally asks for money for some food drive. Never contribute to those. Petsmart has always had them, with tips going to their own charity, and I alway give, as I’ve looked them up, and they have a very good record.

   Never have a problem saying “No” to technology, cashiers staring at me, harder.

8. >>In France, for example, the gratuities are included in the price of food<<

   It's the same in the U.K., and probably so in the rest of the EU countries.

   I remember once being in Calgary, Canada and having an excellent dinner in my hotel restaurant with a colleague who had just flown in from London. After dinner and being distracted with our business conversation, I signed the bill without tipping, as is the norm where I live. Being knackered after his flight, my colleague retired to bed while I repaired to the bar for a nightcap.

   Off-duty,our young waiter came in and said,"Was there something wrong with my service?"

   "No – it was fine."

   He replied, "but you didn't leave a tip. I'm pissed off with you Europeans who never leave tips. You're all stingy bastards."

   I said, "Hold on! We're not stingy! I just forgot the tip, since I'm not used to paying one. How much was it?"

   He told me and said, "I'm a student and depend on tips to live."

   So I paid what I owed plus some more, in cash, and bought him a beer to eliminate his hard feelings.

   He went home entirely mollified and happy.

   Alan.

   1. I wouldn’t have tipped anyone who cursed at me and called me a stingy bastard! There’s always the chance, as in your case, that somebody’s not used to tipping. In fact, I might have told the manager.

      1. He was rude if the conversation went down that way and I’m not saying it didn’t.
         So explanation. The sever has to share his tips with the kitchen staff and buss service. This is not taken from tips but this total bill. If there is no tip the server still has to pay out of their wages. My daughter worked in this industry for several years and this was always a huge complaint.
         Same thing in restaurants that offered pickup. The person ringing in the sale had to tip out . Unfair but this business tend to brutal to workers.

   2. I’m with Jerry. If the waiter had referred to me as a “stingy bastard”, that would have been the end of any chance of him getting a tip that day.

9. I tip my server at a sit down restaurant because they get paid peanuts for the most part, under minimum wage. While I was in Germany and France last year, I learned that tipping was not encouraged because they actually pay their staff better. In fact I wouldn’t mind paying more when I go out to eat if the serving staff was paid better.

   1. Here in Germany there’s no pressure (generally) to tip. When I lived in Australia — where they don’t pay their staff well and often make staff “try out” for a week unpaid, and then not bother to employ them — I often found the waitstaff not deserving of tips, to put it mildly. In Germany the counter staff are generally much friendlier and more competent than waiters even in fairly good restaurants in Australia.

10. I tip the guy who cuts my hair (which is quite long and curly and looks way better than Steven Pinker’s ever did!) and it’s unfair that he only gets the men’s price for cutting it. I only realised how absurd the discrepancy after Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus) mentioned the topic here.

    I do tip waiters if they’re friendly or have a lot to do and do it without griping, but it seems unfair that delivery people for UPS or whoever are run off their feet for many hours a day and have to lug packages around and get nothing. But some waiter gets a few quid for walking from there to here with a coffee cup.

11. And little value is added when the cooks just hand out a container for distribution.

    Presumably the cooks do more than just hand out bags of food; they also cook it to order. If you have special requests (extra cheese, no mustard, or whatever), they honor those. If you’re a regular and they know your preferences, you might not even have to ask to get it just the way you like it. That all contributes to a good takeout experience, and I don’t have a problem rewarding it with a tip.

    That said, I’m in favor of higher wages for food service workers. Several years ago the City of Seattle passed a $15 minimum wage, and it’s now routine in Seattle restaurants to have an 18-20% service charge automatically added to your bill, with no place to write in a tip. Diners and servers seem to be fine with this.

    1. I live in Seattle and eat out a bit and I do not find your claim accurate. Ivar’s tried it for a while but it did not work.

       https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/05/04/ivars-customers-werent-ready-for-tip-free-15-wage.html

       I have eaten out in Seattle many times and have not encountered any place other Ivar’s that did this. Where do you dine out?

    2. Perhaps you eat out with large groups. For large groups, restaurants routinely charge an 18% gratuity in Seattle and elsewhere. The reason is that there is usually under-tipping on large tabs.

       1. Both Tom Douglas and Ethan Stowell add a service charge at all their restaurants, regardless of party size. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it elsewhere as well, at places like Steelhead or Walrus & Carpenter, but it’s been a while since I’ve eaten at those places so perhaps I’m misremembering. But my impression is that it’s become pretty standard for restaurants in that price range.

    3. … “they also cook it to order. If you have special requests (extra cheese, no mustard, or whatever), they honor those. If you’re a regular and they know your preferences”. That’s their job!!! I sure wish that people tipped office workers for doing their job. Tipping has gotten way out of hand and if an establishment is not willing to pay its staff properly, then they should not be in operation. Here in Canada tax and tip adds almost 50 percent to the bill when eating out (or picking up food). I have no issue NOT tipping counter staff. Never did, and never will. I proudly press the no button as I don’t like being extorted to pay somebody’s wage when their employer should be doing that.

12. Okay, maybe a bit off topic, but here’s my favorite tipping story (told to me by a pit boss who swore he got it from the party involved):

    In the late ’50s and early ’60s, Frank Sinatra used to play a two-week gig at the Sands Hotel in Vegas a few times a year. One morning, Frank strolls out of the Sands casino shortly after sunrise. The valet parker spots him, runs over, get Frank’s shiny new red rag-top T-Bird, hustles it over, and holds the door open. As Frank’s getting in, he looks at the kid and asks, “What’s the biggest tip you ever got?” The kid tells him a hundred dollars. Frank reaches in his pocket, pulls out a big roll of bills, peels off two C-notes, stuffs ’em in the kid’s shirt pocket.

    Sinatra gets in the car, starts to pull away, then stops, looks back, and says, “Say, kid, by the way, who was it duked you the hundred bucks?”

    “Why you did, Mr. Sinatra, just last week.”

    1. 🙂

13. The whole concept of tipping is uncomfortable for Australians. Traditionally it is not done here at all but,with the increasing Americanisation of the place, it is creeping in. We find ourselves in the uncomfortable position of doing it and not really knowing why.
    I suppose our attitude is that people should be paid a decent wage to do a decent job without having to smother the customer with false sincerity in order to survive.

    Still …. we think gun prohibition is fairly straight forward too.

14. I absolutely agree .. counter service DOES NOT require tipping !
    TIPS stands for ‘to insure prompt (proper) service ,
    that’s how you determine how much of a gratuity
    your server will get .. someone handing you a bag
    of stuff does not require tipping !! .. I haven’t seen those screens yet ,
    however , if I do , I shall stand there and laugh
    out loud !!!

    1. “TIPS” does not stand for “To insure proper service”. You don’t “insure” it, you’d “ensure” it.

15. A tipping tradition we have in the UK is when buying a drink in a pub one sometimes hears the words ‘and one for yourself’, an invitation to the bartender to put some change in the tips ‘tin’, usually equivalent to the price of a half pint. At one time it was something you heard constantly, but now it’s much less frequent, almost certainly caused by the increase in contactless purchases. Personally, I always tip in restaurants, and if paying by card I leave a ‘staff donation’ in cash, but very seldom in cafes unless the service has been exceptional.

    1. Back in the 60s doing grad studies there (and continuing with what seems now like way too much beer!), it seemed like the tradition was to ‘have one yourself’ for the barmaid (and less often the barman) was proffered every second or third round of pints. But you’d not really expect that money to actually be spent on beer for them.
       Seem to recall that a pint was 20 fluid ounces. Maybe the 3.5% (or was it 4% in bitter??) in Britain then was a fortunate thing for my health 60 years later, rather than the 5% alcohol in Ontario, and even 6.5% for Brador in Quebec.
       I still prefer room temperature beer, except on hot summer days.

16. “Tipping at the counter” also depends on where one lives – in U.S., anyway. It’s typical in Hawaii (but not at McDonalds), for example.

17. That very thing happened to me yesterday. Counter service, touch screen turned towards me with 15%, 20%, 25%, other and no tip as the options. It’s clever. I picked 20% because it was in the middle and I felt obligated to leave something. As far as tipping in general, I’m in favor of it. I have managed hotels for many years. Servers would not want to get rid of tipping. A good restaurant server in my small New England tourist town makes between $30k and $60k a year, almost all tip income. Bartenders can make upwards of $70k-$75k. I knew one who made $85-90k and took a $20k pay cut to move into management. If businesses were to take tipping away and pay them $15 an hour, guests would pay a lot more for their food and service employees would lose a lot of their income. Servers and bartenders can make a decent living working four or five 6 to 8 hour shifts a week. It’s not a terrible gig if you’re good at it.

    1. At the later suggested $15 per hour, you’d make $30K per year, assuming 50 weeks of 40 hours work. So your “..$30k and $60k a year, almost all tip income” would be zero tips for the first one, and half in tips for the higher one, who wouldn’t exist if you “..were to take tipping away..”, nor would even $31K.

       The quoted incomes are almost certainly at best hearsay evidence, or at least on the basis of not much evidence. You can correct me on that obviously if there is reliable statistical evidence. I’d guess those numbers are much on the high side on average.

       I’d also guess that in Norway, restaurant staff make far closer to $30 an hour than to $15 (at the official exchange rate with kroners) though it is true that the cost of living there is somewhat higher (as usual, since Norway is noticeably richer per capita than US).

       So I think decent wages, and more generally a decent wealth distribution, would result in things being better all the way round, except maybe for stockholders in big businesses.

       1. The difference between $30k and $60k comes from the service style and meal period. Someone who works full time during dinner service will make $50-60k. Someone who works breakfast will make in the low $30k range. Breakfast and lunch, $40k+. As far as hearsay is concerned, I’ve been in the business for 30 years and know very well what the servers earn in our market, and in other markets where I’ve worked in the southeast and midwest. Almost 70% of the full service restaurants in the US are independent, not owned by a large corporation. Here is an article that covers what happened in Michigan over this issue: https://mlba.org/restaurant-workers-rally-save-tips/

          1. Firstly note that the article is in a business owners’ ‘rag’ (Michigan Licenced Beverage Owners), not in a supposedly neutral news gathering newspaper, and so does not give one a great deal of confidence in its accuracy, in particular presenting nothing in the way of balanced arguments.
             It is protesting even putting on a ballot a proposal to do more-or-less what I and several others here propose as superior from the viewpoint of both workers and the general public. And one for which other countries’ data provides some evidence of its value.
             It makes monetary claims which sound almost ludicrously inaccurate, namely opposing an increase of wages before tips ($9.25/hr which is about $23,000/yr for fulltime, to $12/hr which would be $30,000/yr, with the gradual elimination of the tipping system (?surely with later further increases?) These numbers are recent, about 15 months ago.
             The numbers speak for themselves. But maybe I should add that the article gives an example of a claimed increased yearly wage costs from $55,000 to $182,000 for a typical small business–somehow an hourly increase of about 30% becomes a yearly increase of well over 300%. Arithmetical education is pretty bad, but surely not that bad.
             Business owners in this case are insulting anybody else who reads this. In general they seem to wish to avoid entirely their own job of supervising employees as to how well they are doing their jobs and to avoid discriminating (I use the word with its general meaning, not the meaning where it should be preceded by an a adjective such as ‘racial’ or ‘very prejudicial’ or such) between the competent and the incompetent.
             Other claims about vast increases in restaurant prices for customers just do not stand up to logic; the idea is simply that present day (price+tips) gets transferred to the new price.

          2. Someone who works full time during dinner service will make $50-60k. Someone who works breakfast will make in the low $30k range.

             And you think this is OK? The people who work breakfast are presumably working just as hard and just the same number of hours and they are not being rewarded because the tips are less.

             You seem to be crafting a pretty good argument for doing away with tips altogether.

             1. Sorry gentlemen, but this is an example of hurting the people you claim you want to help. Spend a little time learning about how the restaurant industry works. Servers make choices about meal periods. They control how much money they make. Schedule flexibility, the ability to make a good income working fewer hours, the ability to make $300 a night working a five-hour shift–these are all reasons people go into serving. It sounds tidy and noble to say “living wage” but most already make a living wage. Many make a lot more than the people managing the restaurant. One real world example, and the I leave the discussion here. A few years ago a science teacher left his teaching job to be a full time dinner server at our restaurant. He made more money serving, he was able to stay home with their small children while his wife worked during the day (avoiding the expense of child care), and he could work five hours a day in the evening. He didn’t plan to do it forever, just until their kids were school age. He was able to do this because he could earn a lot in tips.

             2. “..a science teacher left his teaching job..”
                There are countries, Finland being an example, where they pay teachers something like appropriate for the value they contribute to the human species. But not everywhere, unfortunately.

             3. Servers choose what shifts they do in every single restaurant in the USA do they? I call bullshit.

                One real world example

                Single examples don’t cut it, especially ones that we have no way of verifying.

    2. If businesses were to take tipping away and pay them $15 an hour, guests would pay a lot more for their food and service employees would lose a lot of their income.

       You’re trying to tell me that a system in which the wait staff take home less money in the form of salary would cost the customers more than a system in which the wait staff take home more money in the form of salary + tips.

       That’s arrant nonsense. If the food costs me $20 and I have to add a $5 tip, you know that means the food really cost me £25? Charge $25 for the food and pay your staff a living wage.

18. If it has any social value at all, tipping should be used where one feels a need to provide an extra incentive for someone to provide the best possible service where it is important to the tipper. Strangely, it is often not used for that purpose. For example, tipping one’s health care provider might make sense, but it is simply not done. Instead, I feel obligated to tip someone who serves me a meal, a pedestrian service that should be included in the price. Why?

    Actually, all we’re doing is encouraging employers to underpay employees like restaurant servers and bartenders. The pay might not be great but the employees are in it for the tips which, according to watsonburch above, can be quite substantial. If we didn’t tip, the employees wouldn’t want these jobs, and the employers would be forced to raise wages (and prices to customers) to retain them. And then we could all stop tipping.

    1. “a pedestrian service”

       A good server doesn’t just put food on the table. They’re your agent in the kitchen, making sure your meal is prepared the way you like it and that each course is ready for you when you’re ready for it. And they way they get the cooperation of kitchen staff is by sharing your tip with them.

       There’s a lot going on behind the scenes that you don’t see, and your server is the one coordinating it all for your benefit.

19. Here’s how I look at this. When I tip, I’m essentially paying for service; if I’m at a counter getting carry-out or fast food, I’m not getting that service (i.e. bringing my food out to me while I’m sitting in a restaurant, refilling my drinks, getting condiments/napkins/silver ware, etc.) I’m just paying for food. No service=no tip.
    I feel no compunction about hitting no-tip and couldn’t care less who sees it.

    1. +1

20. Adam Ruins Everything covers Tipping:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_vivC7c_1k

    Granted, he is covering restaurant tipping, but it would apply to counter service as well.

21. I’m not sure coercion (the practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats) is the right concept you are trying to express. Do you really feel threatened or forced?

    1. I can imagine how you would feel coerced. Your in a situation where the server is watching you and the customers behind you are watching and you don’t want to be thought of as cheap. Plus, if the server recognises you next time, you might find your meal tastes of cigarette ash.

       I’d say people feel coerced in those situations. maybe they shouldn’t, but they do.

22. I think the practice of including an optional tip in the electronic terminal probably arose because of the massive swing from cash to cards – credit or just bank debit cards. Which reduced the opportunity for customers to leave a cash tip.

    That said, in NZ, though I’ve been presented with terminals showing an optional tip, I’ve never been pressured into selecting it and indeed I wouldn’t even know how to. What do you do, ask the cashier to add it in?

    I usually prefer (if I remember) to arm myself with a few $5 notes and leave the appropriate one under a plate on the table when I leave. It saves me the embarrassment of directly tipping and never knowing whether I’m over-tipping or being stingy.

    cr

23. I worked in several restaurants in my day, and what I learned from a few of the ones who had counter service (2 restaurants and 2 pizza/Italian shops) is that, yeah when you get there to pick the food up they’re “just handing you a bag” and ringing you out, but they also answer phones, check your order and make sure everything is in the bag/box, prep some foods in the kitchens, clean, (in the case of pizza shops; take orders heat up slices/ watch and turn pies in the oven/ bake bread etc), provide customer service..:especially when someone’s thrilled or angry with their waitress…or the phone call that the delivery driver is late…etc etc etc.
    BUT ALSO IN ALL PLACES WHERE THEY TIPPED AT COUNTER; except for one place, THOSE TIPS WERE DIVIDED AT THE END OF THE NIGHT AND DISTRIBUTED to the counter personnel, the cooks, the dishwashers (sometimes the managers), and at the pizza shops the guy/s who makes the pizza. Basically everyone except wait staff and the owner gets a cut from that jar/credit card tips.
    THAT SAID. I also learned that those counter staffers are paid more an hour (minimum wage) than the waiters/waitresses who make mayyyybe half minimum wage per hour.
    I’m huge on always tipping waitresses. Mainly because of what they make an hour is sickening. And unless the service was so severely crappy and even though I’m not rich I always tip well (plus waiters remember good tippers, and can expect great service each time you come). BUT counter staff really while tipping is “nice” it’s not more mandatory as opposed to how wait staff is. Basically it’s “not just for handing you a bag” but let’s say they made your order special, did a good job, had your stuff ready early, went out of their way, blah blah.

24. This is just blackmail, and a way for companies to pass off costs to consumers rather than paying a living wage.

    1. The costs will still get passed along to the consumers in the form of higher prices even ofd they do pay a living wage.

       But at least they would be being honest about it and not claiming the food is cheaper than it really is.

25. This whole tipping business is bizarre. Do you tip the people who empty your waste bins every week? How about the driver of the bus you catch to go downtown on? Do you tip librarians each time you visit? If you tip, why don’t you tip everyone? Why are some jobs deemed “tippable” when others aren’t?

    Pay people decent salaries in the first place.

26. Tipping has become very Mafia-esque and that should be the end of it. Yes I top 15%-20%in sit down, unless the service sucks (then %10%or less), I always tip hotel maids and usually throw in a couple of bucks for take out, but this push for everyone demanding more of my hard earned money has pushed me over the edge.

    Here in California entry level workers start at $15-$16/hr. and yet more and more shame for tip. Yet I see many in retail that deserve tips get nothing. This, personally pushes me over the line to support the abolishment of tipping all together. I repeat the litany that it is not my responsibility to pay your wages, it is your bosses cost of doing business, I am already paying him to support your wages and I will not pay twice.

27. As a life-long shoe-monger where selling the correct pair of shoes to a customer can easily take an hour the only tip I get is, “when you go out take an umbrella, it’s raining out there”.

28. If we don’t push back on tips for take-out service now, we will basically be signing onto a 15% price increase which (a) is somewhat hidden from customers so it won’t hurt their business much and (b) is the kind of cultural norm that lasts for decades if not centuries. Pay them a decent wage! In support of that, I don’t tip take-out people whether tip jar or computerized.

29. Ask the obvious question to the person who turn the screen to you to pay: “is there table service?”. Say it loud so people behind you can hear. If the answer is no, put in a big $0.

30. As has been said, in a perfect world everyone would be paid properly but I must point out we do not live there and must work within the system we have. Most people who work in service are paid minimum wage and receive no health benefits. The big chains have to provide something but businesses with less than 50 employees do not.
    As regards the kitchen staff, in every restaurant I’ve worked in except in Australia and Ireland I routinely tip out the kitchen staff and bartenders. So in a sit down place that’s 20-30% right off the top.
    In cities with “waiter wage” I routinely received no checks and often received negative check due to the wages not being high enough to cover the taxes.
    I must also point out that the profit margins in restaurants and little counter places are very slim. If my employer (I’m currently a bartender but have worked every job in the industry you can think of) had to pay me $35 an hour he would immediately go out of business. Most of the small joints that give our cities charm and choices would too.
    This is the world we live in. If you don’t want to leave a buck go to a corporate place. One last point is that you may not know how much happiness can be bought with a dollar. For that reason alone I always part with a bit extra.

31. Not normally, but I do tip when I get my trimesterly haircut, which is sort of a counter service …

32. I don’t know of a lot of places with debit machines that suggest a tip where they don’t offer at least some services that might deserve one. At a hair salon where I often buy shampoo & conditioner there’s a screen to add a tip, and I always skip past it (many times at the suggestion of the clerk) since it’s there for tipping the stylists after a hair appointment.

    I think a lot of the pressure to tip in these grey areas like at take-out counters is imagined by the person whose paying. As much as it would be better to pay people in the service industry a decent wage, there’s little we can do in the moment let alone more generally without investing time and money in activism, and so we tip to assuage the guilty feeling of not doing anything more substantial.

33. “I usually do tip when I order a coffee and find a screen turned toward me, but that’s in part to avoid the pang of embarrassment that comes from hitting “No tip,” which would be visible to the person behind me in line and often behind the counter as well”. Are you so pathetic that you care so much what other people think? I NEVER tip counter staff. I find it offensive when an establishment has the nerve to put a tipping option on the terminal. I’ve even stopped going to certain establishments that do this. I think that it’s ridiculous to tip a monkey for passing you a bag of food. But, that’s just my opinion.

34. My thoughts on tipping:

    I never worked in service; but my wife did and it marked her. Under her influence, I have become a generous tipper.

    As a USian, tipping in restaurants is expected. We tip and we tip generously. When you get known in a restaurant (I am a regular in several), you get amazing service.

    I would prefer not to have tipping. But, since we do, I find it is better to be generous.

    Other situations in which I tip:

    Furniture delivery guys. If they are nice, they get a decent tip (“buy your self a beer on us.”)

    Taxi drivers. If they are friendly, nice, and helpful (put my bags in, take them out!) they get a good tip. (I tipped our cabs in and out of CDG in Paris last year. Both were a bit confused but pleased.)

    Sky Caps who check us in, curbside, at the airport. They provide a wonderful service and I am happy to tip them.

    Musicians and buskers.

    My first music teacher played at our wedding (for no fee, I did provide his air ticket and hotel room). He tried to stop me; but I stuffed a big tip in his pocket on the day as well.

    We hired a band for a party at our house. They got a good tip too.

    1. And, to answer your question: No.

    2. Oh, I forgot: I always tip my hair cutter. (Even though my cut is: #1, all over.)

    3. I also forgot hotel maids.

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